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Harmony

by Project Itoh, Alexander O. Smith (Translator)

3.91 of 5 stars 3.91 · rating details · 266 ratings · 46 reviews

Reads L to R (Western Style). In a perfect world, there is no escape

In the future, Utopia has finally been achieved thanks to medical nanotechnology and a powerful ethic of social welfare and mutual consideration. This perfect world isn't that perfect though, and three young girls stand up to totalitarian kindness and super-medicine by attempting suicide via starvation. I

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Published (first published 2010)

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Jul 24, 2012 D.M. Dutcher rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: japanese

This book has way too many long, cerebral speeches about philosophy when the point of the novel is much more basic, and profoundly terrifying. There are moments of dark power in it, but the speeches obscure rather than fulfill it.

Kirie is a self-destructive humanitarian aid worker in a society where everyone is healthy and governed by internal computers to help them. Whether it's to maintain their emotional or physical health, or even just find things, they live in a world where being adult mean...more This book has way too many long, cerebral speeches about philosophy when the point of the novel is much more basic, and profoundly terrifying. There are moments of dark power in it, but the speeches obscure rather than fulfill it.

Kirie is a self-destructive humanitarian aid worker in a society where everyone is healthy and governed by internal computers to help them. Whether it's to maintain their emotional or physical health, or even just find things, they live in a world where being adult means being guided. But in the past, Kirie and her friend Cian knew Miach-a girl who rebelled against this system to the point of trying to get all three of them into a suicide pact. She died, and the other two survived.

But one day, when reuniting with Cian after a disciplinary return to Japan by her agency, Kirie sees something horrifying. Cian, and over 6,000 people commit suicide in a single day. There's a powerfully dark secret about something called Harmony that is starting to come to light. Something with the power to change us forever.

There's something about Japanese SF where they must deliver these long philosophical filibusters rather than just tell a story. A lot of the power of Harmony could have been explained simply, and through showing rather than having one character lecture another on the past or on theory. This makes for a dull, cerebral book at times, except for the parts that finally break this and sum up things or show action.

The idea of the book and the actual plot twists are very intense, if profoundly nihilistic, another recent Japanese trait. I'm not sure it realizes the idea fully, as it's such an alien one that even with the faux-code tagging can't really highlight that well. But it's a wild idea, and a chilling one too-the end of utopia is not what you expect.

Good, but could have been better. Think of Metal Gear Solid: you know how Kojima likes to break up awesome ideas with endless monologues about nuclear power or the latest scientific fad? This book feels a little like that.(less)

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Aug 21, 2011 Andrew rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

“And the successor to that Catholic dogma? Believe it or not, it’s us, with our all-benevolent health-obsessed society. Bodies once received from God are, under the rules of a lifeist admedistrative society, public property. God doesn’t own us anymore, everyone does. Never before in history has ‘the importance of life’ been such a loaded term.”

Miach was right, of course.

And that was why we had to die.

Because our lives were being made too important.

Because everyone was too concerned about everyon...more “And the successor to that Catholic dogma? Believe it or not, it’s us, with our all-benevolent health-obsessed society. Bodies once received from God are, under the rules of a lifeist admedistrative society, public property. God doesn’t own us anymore, everyone does. Never before in history has ‘the importance of life’ been such a loaded term.”

Miach was right, of course.

And that was why we had to die.

Because our lives were being made too important.

Because everyone was too concerned about everyone else.

Of course, it wasn’t enough to simply die. We had to die in a way that made a mockery of the health regime we were supposed to uphold by law. At least, that was what we thought back then.

***

As a Brave New World-esque satire of the utopian/dystopian formula, Project Itoh’s Harmony treads disturbing waters through the approach of death being the instigating factor that can offer change for entire social trajectories. Not just death, in fact, but murder and suicide, specifically.

Taking place mostly in a Japan of the somewhat-near future, Harmony envisions a world that has at once sterilized and commodified itself. Following the Maelstrom—the much alluded to nuclear holocaust that nearly wiped out humanity—admedistrations have taken over, treating the health and welfare of citizens as tasks guided by perfectionism. However, all is not well in a medically infused wonderland. Three young women—Miach Mihie, Cian Reikado, and the protagonist, Tuan Kirie—decide, at Miach’s insistence, to challenge the admedistrations and the WatchMe technology that monitors their bodies and minds by committing suicide. They intend to starve themselves to take back their bodies—to own their physical and emotional selves in a way that the admedistrations have all but made impossible. Though the attempt is mostly a failure, it pushes Tuan down a contradictory path as a World Health Organization officer who delights in punishing her body through nicotine, alcohol, and caffeine, which can still be found and acquired in other nations. When Cian re-enters Tuan’s life and their suicide pact is recalled, events unfold that may threaten to not only topple their admedistration-focused society, but to transform the face of the world.

Employing an HTML mark-up style for memories, emotions, and internal questions, Itoh constructs Harmony as a potentially dishonest narrative—especially given then the book’s welcome yet disheartening conclusion. At first the HTML styling seems cumbersome, disrupting the book’s rhythm with point-form lists. By the book’s conclusion, the HTML styling serves a dual purpose: first, it enforces the pervasiveness of the admedistrations and the WatchMe programming; second, upon completion, it offers a possible alternate meaning to the entire novel, one predicated on the possibility that it has been less a mystery and more a cautionary retelling of events, to instil fear of “unhealthy” motivations in the minds of a technologically placated society. It’s a unique reversal of perspective that feels earned and not in any way meant to pull the rug out from beneath the feet of the readers.

The subject matter of Harmony seems especially prescient given our growing obsession with health, and more importantly, misdirected fear over what is and is not indicative of health. Starvation and gluttony are the parallels most employed in Harmony, perhaps as it is for Miach, Cian and Tuan, because they are two of the least visible ways in which these girls could, at such a young age, attempt to destroy their bodies. Itoh is also making a clear statement that these associative problems are legion, and their impact on children—especially young women—in the future will be as persuasive and deadly as it is today, given the force by which the culture in power seeks to reconcile its own bodily fears and misconceptions.

Harmony works as much as a commentary on current and future health and social practices as it does a story of friendship found, manipulated, and destroyed beyond any point of return. Perhaps most unnerving, given the story’s admedistrative totalitarianism, is knowing that Project Itoh finished this novel while in the hospital, dying of cancer. He passed away in 2009. Harmony is his final work. (less)

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Jun 13, 2011 Brandy rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2011, dystopian-post-apocalyptic, experimental, mystery, speculative-fiction, library, teen, adult

Thanks to nanotechnology and medical implants, getting sick is a thing of the past. Death doesn't really happen. Overly-emotional states are detected and biofeedback is utilized to calm a person, so people stay on a relatively even keel. Miach wants Out of this system, and she makes a suicide pact with her two best friends, the three of them starving themselves in order to beat the system. Only Miach succeeds, and more than a decade later, another finally finds her way out, as part of a global s...more

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May 27, 2011 Forrest rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: cbriii

Japanese science fiction is messed up stuff. I haven’t read a huge amount of it, but the one thing that seems to common to all of it is a pessimism in the ability of humanity, as it stand today, to survive the coming decades. Harmony hypothesizes a Maelstrom, a cataclysmic sequence of events that start with global nuclear conflict and end with rampant ecological and medical devastation. In the wake of this chaos, Itoh proposes a unique post-human society in which it is our minds, and not our bod...more Japanese science fiction is messed up stuff. I haven’t read a huge amount of it, but the one thing that seems to common to all of it is a pessimism in the ability of humanity, as it stand today, to survive the coming decades. Harmony hypothesizes a Maelstrom, a cataclysmic sequence of events that start with global nuclear conflict and end with rampant ecological and medical devastation. In the wake of this chaos, Itoh proposes a unique post-human society in which it is our minds, and not our bodies, that have become obsolete.

For a definition, Posthumanism is the body of theory dealing with technology and the artificial evolution of humanity. Very vague. The most common aspect of this body of theory is transhumanism, which concerns us, as a species, surpassing various elements of the human condition: aging, death, isolation, ect. Science fiction loves this little playground of morality and ethics, but it usually boils down to artificially superior humans dominating, or failing to dominate the masses.

Itoh’s vision of the future does have us overcoming illness and much of the day to day strife of the human condition through the use of advanced medical technology, but the implications are a little different. The thing that the girls in Harmony are fighting against is the outsourcing of their basic functions, from what they eat to what is socially acceptable, to the organizations dedicated to preserving human life against the possible chaos of another Maelstrom. The protagonist, Tuan, stumbles upon a conspiracy to take these concepts to the next level, by using nanomachines to control people’s minds.

The book is told as a historical archive of past events, everything recorded in a mockup of HTML code. Emotions being experienced by Tuan are expressed as style tags, and the text occasionally shifts to full on machine speak. The effect divorces the reader from the immediacy of the story, but at the same time, Tuan’s insistence that she is an independent person in a world full of carbon copies makes her a sympathetic character.

At this point, it becomes difficult to address the body of the book, as so much could be considered spoilers. It is a deceptively quick read, even for it’s scant 250 pages. The big ideas drop hard and fast, and Itoh doesn’t hesitate to bring out controversial evidence to support his thesis, such as the Nazi’s campaigns for general health; their elimination of cigarettes for their health impacts, or their creation of the PA system to better communicate emergency information to large buildings. His point seems to be that for every horrible dictatorship full of atrocities, there have been some positive, if morally ambiguous, advances. Not a direct correlation to be sure, but there are reasons the everyday person buys into a dystopia.

The end of Harmony is quite disturbing, at least it is if you value the traditionally western ideals of individualism and capitalism. This is the one major reason to read books from other cultures. The things that we might find too disturbing to even dream of, might be the utopia of the people across the ocean… (less)

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Apr 17, 2011 Miz Moffatt rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: dystopia, science-fiction, translation, japanese, speculative-fiction

How can one feel alive without knowing the pain of living? Does disease and suffering create our consciousness and our sense of humanity? Harmony creates a world in which human ingenuity has eradicated illness through the use of medicules, a clever injection of molecules that police our bodies and report our health to world authorities. With tailored diets, expert fitness routines, and regular psychological assessments, all of humankind have traded an individual-driven existence in order to live...more

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Dec 06, 2010 Jesse Bullington rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The best SF novel I've read in yonks, this literary reaction to contemporary Japanese (and international) society presents a dystopian future masquerading as a utopian one. Disease and crime are virtually unheard of in the "civilized world" due to society's obsession with health and the implantation of devices that monitor not only the physical well-being of every citizen but also their mental state, and the World Health Organization controls the world with a loving latex fist. We follow a dissa...more

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Oct 16, 2010 Nicola rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: arc, own

Reason for Reading: I love post-apocalyptic/dystopian novels and at the same time I was very intrigued in reading a Japanese novel in translation. So far my Japanese reading has been confined to manga.

This book won the Japanese Awards: the Seiun Award and the Japan SF Award and is a highly literary piece of work. A brilliant work of dystopia that looks at a future world that is unlike anything I've ever read before and is also completely viable. The publisher's summary does not do justice to the...more Reason for Reading: I love post-apocalyptic/dystopian novels and at the same time I was very intrigued in reading a Japanese novel in translation. So far my Japanese reading has been confined to manga.

This book won the Japanese Awards: the Seiun Award and the Japan SF Award and is a highly literary piece of work. A brilliant work of dystopia that looks at a future world that is unlike anything I've ever read before and is also completely viable. The publisher's summary does not do justice to the story at all and I was not prepared for the deep philosophical, scientific, ethical, sociological and technological issues that would be covered in this fairly slim volume.

I couldn't even begin to find the words to describe the plot as it is so intricate and multi-layered nor do I really want to as going into this book without much plot knowledge will only enhance your enjoyment. Instead, let me describe the world. There has been an apocalypse; bombs have dropped and a large portion of the world's population killed. It is now about 60 years later and the civilized world has no governments, or ruling kingdoms, instead the world is managed by the World Health Organization (WHO) and throughout each country there are thousands of admedistration units catering to small sections of the population. People have been implanted with a medical monitoring device which constantly measures physical and emotional health, sending out modules of medications or enzymes to fix the problem straight away. Thus no one in this world is ever sick, hurts themselves, or becomes mentally unstable. Privacy is the ultimate bad word; one you would whisper and make sure no one else heard you say. Everybody has a health output hovering over their head so all can see how each other is doing, and everyone is kind and thoughtful to others because the most precious resource in this population depleted world is human life. As one walks along in life your implant will shield you from emotional distress, should something come up that would interfere with your specific emotional make-up a filtering process would go into place and you would not even see the offending item: painting, magazine, store, etc. Everyone is in perfect health as your diet is streamlined for your consumption, and the correct foods delivered to your home, within your budget. Menus at restaurants bring up a display telling the nutritional content of the food and what is within your parameters. Food with no nutritional value does not exist anymore. And the list goes on ....

Some people are perfectly content with this Utopian society of perfect health, peace and kindness. Never having to make uncomfortable choices and feeling as though they are truly being a valuable resource of society. Others realize this for the totalitarian society that it is and there are a few countries that have not joined the WHO, mainly Russia and then small scattered countries in Africa and the Middle East, which continue to resist. But there are others on the inside who want out, they've read books and found out what life was like before the Maelstorm and recognize individual freedom is missing from their society. Three teenage girls become a part of this resistance when they realize the only way to hurt the establishment is to hurt the most precious commodity, their human life. So they make a pact to commit suicide together. This is only the beginning, though. What will become at risk is the very essence that makes human beings human.

The book is written in a back and forth flow as the main character tells her story now as she works as an agent and flashes back to her childhood and early adult years as she was one of those girls who promised to commit suicide but obviously failed. The book is also written within a sort of HTML code called "Emotional-in-Text Markup Language" and the text is contained within the coded tags and within the text will be other tags with directions, sort of like a play. It's strange at first, but you get used to it as a reader and when you find out it's purpose on the last page ... well it is stunning.

This book really deserves more publicity on this continent. It is one of the best dystopian novels I've read of late and so very different from the other stuff being written today which often has an environmental political agenda behind its cause of the apocalypse. I think I would put this up there with Brave New World, completely different stories mind, but equal in literary merit and psychological impact and thought.

I would like to mention that the very beginning pages do contain some quite vulgar language (which had me thinking I wouldn't be reading the book much further) but it is mostly contained to those pages. Of course, there are expletives here and there throughout the book but don't let the first pages put you off, if language is of a concern to you.(less)

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Sep 03, 2010 Miki Garrison rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The book is far more complex and amazing than the cover copy or product description makes it sound.

In a world where human life is a precious global resource that must be protected at all costs, everything about a person -- choices, emotions, biochemistry, cell metabolism -- is monitored and assessed by computer systems, 24/7. A variety of complex feedback loops are in place to ensure optimum conservation of that resource, including everything from good old-fashioned peer pressure to mandatory in...more

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Aug 30, 2010 Josh rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

I really wish that this book would have changed a few small plot developments later on in the book. I really do. If it had, I would have said this was one of the better books I've read in a long time. As it is, it's still a great boom but somewhat frustrating when all is said and done. On one hand, the world that this novel introduces us to is bot imaginatively thought-out and very well-developed. It was a fun and interesting place to be in so even with the story's slow burn pacing, you still wa...more I really wish that this book would have changed a few small plot developments later on in the book. I really do. If it had, I would have said this was one of the better books I've read in a long time. As it is, it's still a great boom but somewhat frustrating when all is said and done. On one hand, the world that this novel introduces us to is bot imaginatively thought-out and very well-developed. It was a fun and interesting place to be in so even with the story's slow burn pacing, you still wanted to read on to see just what amusing extrapolations of technology Itoh would throw at you next.

By no means is this a light-hearted novel though- quite the contrary. The book is very bleak and often highly satirical (though played with a completely straight face most of the time, the sure sign of effective satire). The ideas and moral situations brought up in this morass of a society we're privy to, however, echo still in my mind so the bleakness is certainly warranted.

Lastly, Itoh's novel is simply written wonderfully. Not only does the novel playfully mingle HTML with text to create a bizarrely modern prose/poetry fusion that creates a sort of meta, literary soliloquy but the translator has pulled some overtime hours because the language is of the highest caliber. At no point did I feel like I was being talked down to and yet everything was phrased as simply as possible. Itoh did a superb job of balancing the non-linear plot throughout, may I add.

But, to get to the few things I disliked about I refer to late-game Plot developments. Without spoiling anything, I think that specific background plot elements of one of the main characters that arise stretched the credibility of the plot, not to mention the purpose. They didn't quite mesh with the rest of the story and seemed to me like they could have been left out entirely and only slight re-working would have been required. That said, these details do follow somewhat logically from what came before it was just a bit disappointing to me that they didn't seem more cohesive than they did.

Overall though, this is a great novel for the thinking reader. It has grand ideas, a grand vision, and...mostly grand execution. Highly recommended to sci-fi fans and casual readers alike.(less)

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Mar 29, 2013 szellőcske rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Azt hiszem @irasalgor fogalmazta meg előttem, hogy olyan érzése volt a könyv kapcsán,mintha az író fogta volna a Szép új világot és az 1984-et, és készített volna belőle egy kissé továbbgondolt, rendkívül fogyasztóbarát koktélt (nem pont ez volt a vélemény, de nála olvastam először a párhuzam hatásait). Annak ellenére, hogy ritkán olvasok disztópiát számomra ez a regény egy nagyon pozitív meglepetés volt, mert amennyire beszippantott ez a papírra álmodott világ, annyira el is borzasztott. Volt a...more Azt hiszem @irasalgor fogalmazta meg előttem, hogy olyan érzése volt a könyv kapcsán,mintha az író fogta volna a Szép új világot és az 1984-et, és készített volna belőle egy kissé továbbgondolt, rendkívül fogyasztóbarát koktélt (nem pont ez volt a vélemény, de nála olvastam először a párhuzam hatásait). Annak ellenére, hogy ritkán olvasok disztópiát számomra ez a regény egy nagyon pozitív meglepetés volt, mert amennyire beszippantott ez a papírra álmodott világ, annyira el is borzasztott. Volt abban valami különösen hátborzongató érzés, hogy olyasvalaki fogalmazta meg ezeket a gondolatokat a tökéletes egészség, a „megdizájnolt” élet világáról,aki maga éveken át halálos kórral küzdött. És rásüti erre a világra, hogy ez a jövő harmóniája…lehetne róla hosszasan értekezni, hogy nem tartunk-e ebben a percben is egy ilyen világ felé,hogy képesek lennénk-e így élni. Lehet ezekre a kérdésekre egyértelmű választ adni? Ha belegondol az ember nem olyan rossz dolog az, hogy vigyáznak az emberre, az egészségre, hiszen nap mint nap mindenféle ellenőrzés vagy behatás nélkül mi magunk is ezt tesszük a magunk módján. De mi van akkor,ha az irányítás a mi kezünkből valami erősebb hatalom kezébe kerül? Statisztikák döntik el, hogy ki,mi az egészséges, a tested többé nem a tiéd egy bizonyos kor után, ha ellene cselekszel bűnt követsz el,amiért megtorlás jár…lehet ekkora árat fizetni egy szép új világért? Elfogadsz vagy lázadsz? Beállsz a sorba és meghúzod magad, vagy megpróbálod az emberi mivoltodat megőrizni egy embertelen világban?
Nagyon sok kérdést magával hoz ez a regény. Sajnos a többségük aktuális is, vagy afelé halad. Nem vitatom egy percig sem, hogy a tudomány fejlődése elengedhetetlen az emberiségnek, mindenféle szempontból. De meddig terjedhet a tudomány? És meddig fejlődés az, amit annak kiáltunk ki,és honnan lépi át a csendes pusztítás határait? Azt hiszem ha ezt a világot hívnánk valóban harmóniának, akkor talán nem vágyom annyira a jövőbe..(less)

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Jul 14, 2011 AmandaSOTP rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read-2011

This is truly an amazing book. It's a full book, plenty of action, great characters, and a unique style. It's written as though you're experiencing it from a computer in that it is full of HTML and it uses that to its advantage. The reader is given emotions and insight through the tags and this helps to really bring the book to life. I'm sorry I put it off on my TBR pile for so long.

In more ways than one, this book makes a lot of valid points about our society and where its potential lies. It is...more

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May 16, 2011 Daniel Roy rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: dystopia, sf

"Harmony" is a thought-provoking SF story which, at its best moments, echoes some of the brilliance of Haruki Murakami's work. Its premise is both original and familiar: a future society where health matters above all, and social cohesion stiffens people's creativity. In a world that gave us the peer pressure of the A(H1N1) vaccine, this world of peer pressure health doesn't sound that far-fetched.

The setting of the novel had a strong Japanese feel to it, which is a pleasant departure from the A...more "Harmony" is a thought-provoking SF story which, at its best moments, echoes some of the brilliance of Haruki Murakami's work. Its premise is both original and familiar: a future society where health matters above all, and social cohesion stiffens people's creativity. In a world that gave us the peer pressure of the A(H1N1) vaccine, this world of peer pressure health doesn't sound that far-fetched.

The setting of the novel had a strong Japanese feel to it, which is a pleasant departure from the Anglo-Saxon brand of dystopia. Rather than present a society where order has fallen to pieces, "Harmony"'s world features a very strong social cohesion, a sort of extreme extension of Japan's consideration for others. The overall obsession with health, with the body as public property, is one of the novel's best touches.

The main character in the story is at times frustrating, at times brilliant. She's flawed and sarcastic, which makes her likeable, and yet I had a hard time grasping her motivations, what makes her tick. The same problem extends to other characters in the story, giving the narrative a sort of disjointed, floating quality, again reminiscent of Murakami (although I don't think this was done as purposefully and skillfully as Murakami's tales of alienation.)

"Harmony" uses a literary device that jumps at you from the first pages: the "etml" format, where the narrator uses HTML-like tags to underline emotions, flashbacks, etc. This was a good idea, but unfortunately it was used more as a gimmick, and took me out of the narrative rather than enhance it. It ultimately makes sense, but until it does, it clashes with the themes and narrative structure of the novel.

While the philosophical ideas about human consciousness at the core of "Harmony" is its strength, its weakness shows in its more SF ideas. Some of the aspects of the future world feel disjointed, too clever to provide real versimilitude. For instance, the idea of making WHO troops wear scrubs-pink body armor is worth a smirk, but makes for a very shoddy visual over time. At times, I felt the core ideas of the novel would have worked better in a near-future or contemporary setting, such as in Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End of the World.

All in all, "Harmony" was a pleasant tale, at times wonderfully wince-inducing, at other times mind-bending; bits of Murakami, a dash of Cat's Cradle, in an adventure romp through the nature of human consciousness. Not perfect, but well worth a read.(less)

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Mar 13, 2011 Deeneez rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I've been reading Harmony by Project Itoh (real name Satoshi Itō)...translated by Alexander O. Smith

It's science fiction at it's best. Even though I'm reading a translated book, you'd never know it. It's a piece of artwork! I can understand why it won the 2009 Seiun Award in Japan...and is currently nominated for the Phillip K. Dick Award for this year.

Summary from Amazon..product description:
In the future, Utopia has finally been achieved thanks to medical nanotechnology and a powerful ethic o...more

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Jan 21, 2011 Craig Hughes rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A great piece of sure-footed writing from Keikaku Itoh, and a great translation by Alexander O. Smith. Dystopian fiction is alive and well, unlike the author, who succumbed to the cancer he was being treated for as he wrote this story of future health-fascism.

Following a shuffled chronology in the life of Tuan Kirie, a young Japanese woman who works in warzones, beyond the reach of medical monitoring, so she can indulge in sybaritic abuses of her body with prohibited substances like alcohol and...more

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May 12, 2012 Jack Haringa rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction

I wanted to like Harmony much more than I actually did. The essential problem with the novel is that it doesn't really contain a novel's worth of material; the story of Tuan, Miach, and the struggle for self-definition is an interesting one, but as told it could have handily fit into a book half this length. Instead of deep development of the ideas and implications of their society and the conflict over consciousness, we get frequent repetition of Tuan's emotional state and her reflections on he...more

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Aug 09, 2010 Tonchi rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, japoneses, ciencia-ficción, después-del-apocalipsis, 2010

La premisa: el mundo es perfecto, ya no hay enfermedades, ya no hay males, la gente vive vidas longevas y 3 niñas deciden revelarse al mundo del único modo posible... suicidándose.

Bajo esa premisa Itoh hace una novela bastante interesante basada en la idea de hasta donde puede o no importarnos lo que nos rodea y que tanto peso nos ponemos ante los demás, además, es un libro bastante interesante por otro asunto, Itoh lo escribió mientras padecía cancer y estaba hospitalizado, el mismo cancer que...more

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Aug 28, 2012 Merredith rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 4-or-5-stars, sci-fi

Harmony is a little hard to read at first, because it's written in a sort of html code, but it's actually an emotion code, so that the reader can feel the emotions as they're narrated in the book. Huh? you say... you learn about it later, one of the innovations that people have in this future. Yes, it's the future, and a sort of utopia where everything is almost perfect, and the main character feels chafed by that. she sets out to solve a string of suicides, almost unheard of in this time, and u...more

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Mar 07, 2011 Jason rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: schell-games-book-club

Harmony wasn't terrible, but I couldn't really connect with it on any level.

I couldn't relate to the over-healthified lifeism dystopia, which felt like some kind of reaction to Japanese culture that's perhaps a little alien to Americans. I couldn't relate to the characters, who seemed to have strange motivations and unrealistic reactions to the events in the book. And I didn't buy the explanation of consciousness at all. Probing the hypothesis just a little would reveal all kinds of flaws and in...more

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Aug 09, 2010 Stacy rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2010

An interesting concept which probably works better in the original Japanese; like many books translated from Japanese, the text has a slightly curt tone which reads a little awkwardly at times.

Utopia of a sort has been achieved via medical technology which constantly monitors and optimizes human health, and takes away the free will to behave in self-destructive but enjoyable ways. Ultimately a meditation on the importance of the individual - or the lack thereof - the novel starts slowly but is...more

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Mar 12, 2011 the golden witch. rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2011, own, own-1st-edition, scifi, light-novels, tomorrowland, happy-bacteria, dystopia, best-of-11, reviewed, teenage-shennanigans, not-for-swap, favorites-novels

I can see why this was nominated for this year's Phillip K. Dick award.

Dystopian fiction is one of my favourite genres, and this book really takes the top spot of some of the scariest dystopian fiction that I've ever read. And I've read plenty of it (starting with Huxley's "Brave New World" at age 13).

I'm definitely not going to give spoilers on this one, because I think that everyone should give this book a read. Much in the vein of Otsuichi's writing, Itoh's prose is short and brutal and strai...more

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Jun 06, 2011 Dana * rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: dystopian

Shelves: 2011, dystopian, magical-realism, future, young-adult

I thought this book was going great, but had an abrupt ending. There was a lot of plot summary in the last few pages that would have been better parsed out during the progress of the story. I thought the ultimate ending was appropriate, and followed the plot nicely, but it just wasn't well paced.
A dystopian future where the government is replaced by medical administration is not hard to imagine at all from the year 2011.
A typical big brother story, but government is no longer the big brother. ON...more

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Jun 21, 2011 Brian Krespan rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Wow. Just wow. I haven't read a book that gripped me like this did. Being a fan of "1984" and "Brave New World" this hits the nail on the head into bringing it into the near future.

Most of the story takes place in Japan, but it is very easily understood and there isn't much written that didn't translate into English well. The story is fast paced and well detailed. The characters are well developed and the world is very believable.

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Jan 29, 2011 Natalie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: newly-read-2011

Pretty standard fare for any reader of things Japanese in translation and anyone familiar with Japanese culture where every little thing gets made into a disease, a failing social phenomenon that urgently needs fixing right now.

It's a good book with an unusual approach to utopia/dystopia, which was pretty much what I wanted. Yay?

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Nov 18, 2010 David rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction

This is a wonderfully unique book, translated from the Japanese, about a medical society gone totalitarian, along the lines of Brave New World. You almost *want* the main characters to succeed in their suicide pact, and the discussions of morality, self-destructive choices, consciousness, etc. are fascinating.

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May 20, 2013 Klara Wahlster rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Eh. An overwhelming eh. Interesting premise, but an exploration of an interesting theme in a dedicated overture to vague language. The entire story seemed to be told through a fog. Very upset with tone, and with ending which was abrupt and featured a total change in the main antagonist's ethos.

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Feb 25, 2011 Eric rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2011, science-fiction

I chuckled every time "the old folks" were blamed for mankind's dystopian future. When homo perfectus ushers in a brave new world, you can bet there's some anonymous old geezer behind the curtain pushing the Harmony button.

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Dec 17, 2011 Fincalian rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: japanese, sci-fi

I think this was a really interesting book, and I'm very glad that I have experience with Japanese culture, because character motivations and the ending make a lot more sense to me. Maybe I'll write something more coherent after I sleep.

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Jan 24, 2011 Smarier rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Wow, just finished this book and it is a mind F***, but a very good one.

Shame the author has died, I would have loved to read more of his work.

There is a Max Headroom Easter Egg in the book, which I found very funny.

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Jun 28, 2011 Lori rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Wow, this story seems simple on the surface but gets more complex the deeper you go. Made me really think through what it would be like to live in a utopian society that is free of disease and discord, yet at what cost? Very enjoyable read, I will have to explore more from this author who died way too young.

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Aug 06, 2012 Aaron rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Ugh. Not impressed.

1. God forbid I ever again have to read a book that uses xml-like syntax.
2. The metaphysics/philosophy in this book is so very, very weak. Similarly, the future society is ill explained and though the idea is interesting, it makes no sense that there are virtually no dissidents. The whole idea that everybody just up and agreed to such a thorough nanny state is crazy. How does the dropping of a few nukes help you convince everyone to voluntarily give up bacon?
3. The action/myst...more

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About Project Itoh

Project Itoh (伊藤計劃 Itō Keikaku?), real name Satoshi Itō (伊藤聡 Itō Satoshi?, October 14, 1974 – March 20, 2009), was a Japanese science fiction writer.

Born in Tokyo and graduated Musashino Art University. While working as a web designer, he wrote Gyakusatsu kikan and submitted to Komatsu Sakyō Award contest in 2006. Although it did not receive the award, it was published from Hayakawa Publishing i...more

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Quotes from Harmony

“For people living in fear, moderation just doesn't cut it. And most of the people in my world are fearful. It's like keeping a piggy bank when you never empty your wallet in the first place.” — 2 people liked it

“The instant the old folks had entered their codes and the Harmony program had begun to sing, suicide disappeared from human society. Nearly all battles ceased. The individual was no longer a unit. The entire social system was the unit. By losing its sense of self and self-awareness, society had been freed from the pain it suffered because its systems had relied on imperfect humans, arriving for the first time at a perfect bliss. I am a part of the system, as you are part of the system. No one felt any pain about that any longer. There was no “me” to feel pain. I had been replaced by a single...” — 1 person liked it

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